Debabrata Saikia alleges anomalies in fund allocation in Karbi Anglong

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The leader of the opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, alleged several anomalies related to the allocation of funds in the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) while addressing the members of the media from the Assam Legislative Assembly Building on Saturday.

“There is rampant corruption and siphoning of public funds through nepotism in KAAC under Tuliram Ronghang,” said Debabrata Saikia. Citing the publicly available official records, he said that development projects under various grants had been awarded only among the family members and close relatives of the incumbent Chief Executive Member (CEM), KAAC Tuliram Ronghang.

Saikia said that a grant of Rs 100 crore was made as a special grant to CM’s road improvement package, which was sanctioned and transferred vide Hill area development of Assam. He pointed out that proper due diligence for the award and allocation of work had not been followed, and the entire grant was allocated to two entities, namely M/s Kache Construction (OPC) Pvt. Ltd., owned by the spouse of the Chief Executive of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, which was awarded Rs 60 crore of project work, and M/s Inglong Enterprise, owned by the younger brother of the CEM, KAAC, Robiram Ronghang. This firm was awarded Rs 40 crore in project work.

He added that the execution of the allocated work showed the intention was to embezzle the allocated funds with complete disregard for public convenience. A serious concern and unprecedented instance is that most of these projects were already funded under some other grants, thus there was “overlapping” of works and gross misappropriation of funds.

He cited the example of the improvement of the road from Joysing Doloi Memorial Auditorium to DM (Diphu-MAnja) Road, whose length is 320.00 m (by providing bituminous macadam and bituminous concrete). Est. Amount: Rs 150.00 lakh allocated to contractor Robiram Ronghang. The same work was again sanctioned under the Finance Minister’s Special Package for the financial year 2019–20 (during the tenure of Himanta Biswa Sarma as the Finance Minister, Government of Assam). Est. Amount: Rs 165.16 lakh to the same contractor.

Similarly, the improvement of the road from the first Police Point of DM (Diphu-Manja) Road to Matipung Tiniali, whose length is 1060.00 m, has an estimated cost of Rs 1435.82 lakh for contractor Maneem Teronpi. The same work had already been sanctioned and implemented under SOPD-ODS for the financial year 2017-18 at an estimated cost of Rs 932.76 lakh.

Also the improvement of the road from Diphu Civil Hospital Road to Lorulangso via Diphu Thana under CM’s Road Improvement Package, 2018-19, with an estimated amount of Rs 1678.69 lakh to Contractor Inglong Enterprise, the proprietor of which is Robiram Ronghang. And the same work was again sanctioned and implemented under the Finance Minister’s Special Package 2019-20 on March 26, 2020, at an estimated cost of Rs 676.00 lakh by contractor Robiram Ronghang. Yet again, the same work was sanctioned and implemented under the Finance Minister’s Special Package 2019-20 on March 29, 2020, at an estimated cost of Rs 540,80 lakh by contractor Robiram Ronghang.

Speaking about the work of widening with a geometric improvement of the Diphu-Dillai-Sarihajan road (Birola to Rongplimplam) with a length of 17.00 km for the financial year 2020-21 with an estimated amount of Rs 30 crore, the date of commencement of work for which was December 22, 2020, and the date of completion of the work on December 29, 2020, he added, “If this firm is able to construct a 17 km road in mere a week, then this type of engineering technology should be implemented across all road construction projects of the subcontinent”.

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